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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

to hate the word 'up-cycling'?

159 replies

mousemates · 10/11/2014 09:26

It drives me absolutely potty. What the actual fuck does it even mean? Isn't up-cycling just the same as recycling, really? Taking someone which was used up/going to be thrown out and using it for something else?

Why can't these rich fucking ponces just say up-cycling?

God, I'm in such a bad mood this morning and listening to some cunt on the radio going on about up-cycling some old shite has driven me around the bend.

OP posts:
TheCountessofFitzdotterel · 10/11/2014 11:37

Petula, I agree.
Also, 'wild swimming' was just swimming.

ILovedYouYesterday · 10/11/2014 11:39

Yanbu

I also hate 'gifted' - as in 'my DC was gifted some plastic shite for his birthday'

and 'tasked with'

sonjadog · 10/11/2014 11:44

On real estate programmes, I notice they no longer use the word "room". it is now a "space", as in, on walking into a pokey lounge, "Oh, what a great space this is."

Cupboards are also now known as "storage".

BeCool · 10/11/2014 11:47

YABU

Guy explained the difference very well up thread.

I love that the English language is rich enough, and fluid enough to provide proper words for concepts. To hate a word, or to hate people for using a word that describes a pretty worthwhile action is really a bit silly.

Why not channel your hate and rage into something more requiring of it - perhaps you will be able to use it to make a difference to something that needs a difference made?

I feel the same way about "foraging"
It's just picking stuff, no different from when we went blackberry or sloe picking when I was little
Yes it is the same action, and no it is no different. But again our rich language has a proper word, and "foraging" is much more eloquent, concise, useful, and descriptive than "Picking stuff". "Picking stuff" could mean picking stuff from the garden, or supermarket shelf, whereas the word foraging tells us that someone is "picking stuff that grows wild" - but in just one word. Clever isn't it!

You are kind of saying "I hate people for having/using a better vocabulary than me".

Original poster
mousemates · 10/11/2014 11:50

TheCountess I know. The trouble is we don't have a car so it's hard for us to get to the auctions and then to get the stuff back. I'd absolutely love it. I think DH would take some convincing but bollocks to him

YY to foraging and gifted and space! Another one with the estate agent programmes is when they say it's 'dual aspect'. No, it has two windows my love.

My theory is that these words have developed because middle class people have started to engage in the sorts of activities that only the working class who had to do previously. As a kid, we went blackberry picking, had a house full of old crappy furniture and my mum only shopped at charity shops because that was all we could afford. Now that people who can afford not to do these things are filling their house with old crap and buying old dusty clothes then there has to be a more positive name attached to these things like up-cycling, foraging and vintage.

Bollocks.

OP posts:
Original poster
mousemates · 10/11/2014 11:54

BeCool Hmm The superiority or inferiority of a person's vocabulary is culturally-mediated and situated so I don't really subscribe to the idea that people are using 'better' words than me. The point of the thread is that the people who do use these words are too un-self aware to realise that most people think they sounds like cunts.

OP posts:
BeCool · 10/11/2014 11:58

YABU

Pipbin · 10/11/2014 11:58

I'm with you there OP.

You can't just start making words up like that. I can't stand 'pop-up shop' either. What about those crappy shops you get this time of year selling nasty advent calendars and decorations in empty units? Are they pop up shops? No, because some London based media twat hasn't said so.

I suggest we all watch Nathan Barley again and remind ourselves that it is twunts like him that make up these words.

PetulaGordino · 10/11/2014 12:00

Becool I said nothing about the people who use it - i don't hate them at all Confused

The word irritates me, that is all. And I agree with you about te diverse use of language and English in particular. But it doesn't stop me, an individual person, being irritated by a particular word

Pipbin · 10/11/2014 12:01

The point of the thread is that the people who do use these words are too un-self aware to realise that most people think they sounds like cunts.

Beautifully put.
The better vocabulary argument is like Audi drivers who claim that other people say they drive like cunts because they are jealous of their cars.

BeCool · 10/11/2014 12:03

You all sound so very old, conservative and stuck in the mud.
"Back in my day ..........." etc etc, strokes pearls, blue rinses hair, tuts.

Wake up, relax a little. Seriously!

Original poster
mousemates · 10/11/2014 12:05

Pipbin YY to pop-up for sure! My uncle used to be a fly pitcher- his stall was hardly a 'pop up'. Just a fat bloke selling whatever shite he could get his hands on from his van.

OP posts:
Original poster
mousemates · 10/11/2014 12:06

BeCool I'm 28 Grin

OP posts:
GuybrushThreepwoodMP · 10/11/2014 12:08

Totally fine to hate the use of the word if you find it pretentious. It is pretentious of it ends up being used in a pretentious way to describe arsing around with some table legs, sticking them on old suitcases and attempting to mark up the value by 500%.
Can I refer to my post this morning though and suggest you come up with a less annoying one though? Sustainable use? Product longevity? It really is important to differentiate.
Sorry- I don't usually get all serious and sincere on an aibu but I really think it is an important point.

PetulaGordino · 10/11/2014 12:08

becool i've argued the same case as you on threads like this before - i don't disagree with you (though on the "old fuddy duddy" thing i think you're being possibly as bad as the "rich posh twats" viewpoint)

some people get irritated by certain words, i'm sure they use other neologisms that don't irritate them

LemonChicken · 10/11/2014 12:09

This reply has been deleted

Message deleted by MNHQ. Here's a link to our Talk Guidelines.

Original poster
mousemates · 10/11/2014 12:10

Guy Errrm, reusing?

Arsing around with some table legs Grin

OP posts:
BeCool · 10/11/2014 12:10

I'm sure you are 28 - I completely believe you.

And yet this thread makes you sound so very old, conservative and stuck in the mud. Bah humbug!

Original poster
mousemates · 10/11/2014 12:15

Sorry BeCool that I don't adhere to the expectations of my age group. I will go and buy a smartphone because that's what us young people do isn't it and start up-cycling furniture immediately.

OP posts:
Pipbin · 10/11/2014 12:18

What did we use to call it 15 odd years ago when 'Change That' was on? Sure as shit wasn't 'up-cycling' then. Do you remember that program? There was a roadshow that would go to different towns and people would take along some poor sideboard that was minding it's own business, strip it down and paint the bastard thing with pink crackle effect paint.

Language does change and adapt according to need and usage but I don't like using words that have been created by media twats to put in the pages of magazines.

BeCool · 10/11/2014 12:20

LemonChicken saying "with all due respect" before launching a nasty diatribe does not make it respectful at all.

Just more nasty.

I'm not saying I use better or more clever words than anyone, just that hating people and calling them pretentious twats just because they can use words in a correct context is beyond daft.

Original poster
mousemates · 10/11/2014 12:25

Pipbin I don't remember it. But YY about the media twats. What pisses me off is that these new words are invented when there are perfectly good words that already describe the thing or the action. Someone up thread saying that estate agents now talk about 'space' rather than a fucking room is a brilliant example.

Another one that pisses me off is 'Trending'. Eugh. I get it in the context of Twitter because a 'Trend' is an actual thing on Twitter. But when you get the fashion dicks on TV saying 'this is trending right now'. NO. NO. It's this is 'TRENDY' right now. Or fashionable right now. Or hot this season etc. But not 'trending'. Just fuck off. I also think that 'trending' connotes something which is short-term, so trending for a day or so and then everyone forgets about it. Whereas in fashion, being trendy should last at least a season and the word 'trending' just doesn't suggest that.

OP posts:
LemonChicken · 10/11/2014 12:25

I'm not saying I use better or more clever words than anyone, just that hating people and calling them pretentious twats just because they can use words in a correct context is beyond daft.

you said EXACTLY that with your constant use of words like better and clever, look where I have used bold text and tell me that's not you stating categorically that twat-language is superior.

"yes it is the same action, and no it is no different. But again our rich language has a proper word, and "foraging" is much more eloquent, concise, useful, and descriptive than "Picking stuff". "Picking stuff" could mean picking stuff from the garden, or supermarket shelf, whereas the word foraging tells us that someone is "picking stuff that grows wild" - but in just one word. Clever isn't it!"

LemonChicken · 10/11/2014 12:28

LemonChicken saying "with all due respect" before launching a nasty diatribe does not make it respectful at all.

well doh, of course it doesn't ..... I was being deliberately disrespectful. I have zero respect for the users of twatty language, which is why I prefaced my now deleted diatribe with " with all due respect". I thought that would have been pretty obvious.

now hurry up and report this one too.

Original poster
mousemates · 10/11/2014 12:28

BeCool It's not about using words in the 'correct' context. It's about the fact that the words themselves are cuntish and pretentious and don't need to exist. Because the words are cuntish and pretentious, my opinion is that a lot of the time, the people who use the words un-reflexively are also cuntish and pretentious.

OP posts: